Quality Assurance teams think of software developers as individuals who drink highly caffeinated beverages while conducting frantic bug hunts under tight deadlines. In reality, the truth is much different.
QA teams work as the support backbone for the development team, and the best ones drive the quality of the product through thorough process-driven functions. The value these teams provide often goes unnoticed, but they are at the foundation for driving operational agility and meaningful customer interactions.
So how do we measure success? Is it about how many software bugs a team reports or about the quality of those bug fixes?
Not too long ago, the number of bugs in your database was the primary indicator of your game’s quality. As games have become more and more complex, so have the criteria to analyze and measure quality. It is also important to note that time and effort (and to be frank, cost) of testing games has risen accordingly.
So, with all this in mind, we’ve put together a list of the top 5 data-driven criteria that any QA manager needs to know to keep their team operating at optimum velocity.
1. Bug Acceptance Rate
This is a great barometer to track QA team reporting. It will showcase valid bugs and reduce duplicated and invalid ones. It provides an excellent high-level overview and synopsis of how your QA team is doing. The Bug Acceptance Rate is a one-stop KPI that is open for both the QA management and the Development team to view how the bugs are being reported. It shows the QA team understands the product and the development priorities.
2. Qualitative Bugs
It is not always about the quantity of bugs; however, it is primarily about the quality (important and critical) of bugs. What percentage of bugs matches your severity criteria? How many reported bugs are there on stop-shipment issues? A great QA team will find critical issues to the usability of the product and match against development priorities. This stops the dev pipeline being clogged up with low severity issues.
3. Task Productivity
This shows the time the QA team takes to complete the assigned tasks, such as regressions, and test cases. With good test planning, the QA team clearly understands what to do and when to do it by. This is easily trackable and can be used to hone productivity over time.
4. Task Accuracy
It is essential to complete the tasks accurately. When testers are familiar with the tasks, they tend to mark it as a pass without thoroughly checking it and mismarking them. This should not happen; a QA team should always perform such tasks diligently. A great QA team will have processes to help each other be diligent in task completion, including regular peer-review and management oversight. This extra oversight is easily trackable and provides a direct report on task accuracy.
5. Fix Failed Bugs
This helps the development team understand how sticky their fixes are. The result is a quicker time to market for game developers and publishers. As someone once said, behind every great developer, there is a great QA team, and nothing shows this off better than a low fix-fail rate. It is the true representation of a QA and Development team working in tandem to create a great product.
If you have any questions or wish to understand how GlobalStep can use these KPI’s to help your Development teams produce better product, get in touch with us at: sales@globalstep.com
